BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — Over 100 Robe moving lights, controlled by grandMA consoles and other gear from MA Lighting, were used to light “Cat Girls,” a Slovakian TV show that tries to find the sexiest girl in the country. The show was staged in the Expo Arena in front of a live audience and broadcast live on Slovakia’s Markiza network.
Martin Kubánka, LD for the show, was brought onboard by production company MAYA. All lighting and sound equipment for the event was supplied by Q-99 Sound & Light.
Kubánka’s creative challenge included producing an integrated lighting and video design that worked on camera and for the live audience. He worked closely with show director Karol Vosátko, camera director Vladimir ÄŽurÄÂanskÅ· and video operator Thomas LeckÅ·.
The Robe fixtures included 42 ColorSpot 1200E ATs, 18 ColorWash 1200E ATs, 34 ColorSpot 575E ATs and 14 Robe Scan 575 XTs. The rig also contained large counts of LED fixtures, conventionals, including 4 and 8-lite blinders and PARs, plus strobes and several different types of LED screen surface around the set and under the floor.
“Robe has excellent color mixing,” Kubánka said. “This is vital for any TV show, and a big reason why Robe is always my preferred choice of moving light.” He also made use of the strobing for some scenes in the show.
The fixtures were rigged onto three gently V-shaped over-stage trusses, another traversing the runway horizontally, and four more trusses circling around the audience perimeters. There were also units on the deck.
Kubánka had to ensure that the lighting was balanced against the numerous LED set elements, supplied by Schnick-Schnack, Optec and Kudux, among others. This translated into the need for some very bright lightsources — another reason Robe got the nod.
The Robe ColorSpots and Washes in the air and on the floor were all used for backlighting effects and accenting, while the floor units punched up the visual energy above the stage for the show.
For the audience, Kubánka created a variety of large, beamy wide shots, offering the FOH cameras a good depth of field as they panned across the whole venue. He also produced some complementary texturing onto the non-LED set elements.
As a live broadcast, programming time was tight. Kubánka said he made the most of all the Robe units’ speed and “programmability” during this process as he worked alongside console operator Michael Schmidt, who ran the grandMA desk for the show.
“We had a great team who worked incredibly hard and we utilized all the best equipment,” said Kubánka, who has used Robe for several years. “This made a very technically ambitious project come together incredibly quickly and smoothly.”
The grandMA system controlling the rig consisted of one grandMA full-size console, two grandMA light units, five MA media PCs with the grandMA video media server software, three MA NSPs and seven MA Digital Dimmer 12 x 2,3kW.
Kubánka explained his choice: "This TV show was really demanding. We had to synchronize lighting and video which could be done via the grandMA in a very easy and powerful way. As a system solution as well as stand alone products the MA components are unbeatable."
Fifty-four Schnick-Schnack-Systems’ LED-C100 panels, which are distributed by MA Lighting, were used as video screens. They were controlled via the Pixel Mapper portion of the grandMA's video software. A.C.T Lighting is the exclusive North American distributor for the grandMA.
For more information, please visit www.robe.cz and www.actlighting.com.
